“Darn, Darn, Darn” Mariah said out loud. Her basket for darning was full to overflowing and she had her eye to mend Uishneach’s slippers before they lost the run of themselves and fell into a thousand little pieces. The guts of the right slipper were looking out a hole in the back. Underneath the other slipper there was a round hole or two. 

Threading the Needle

She went outside, basket in hand and found a place under the tree and near the hedge. The light was good enough for her aging eyes and she settled to threading the needle where she thought the thread should go. 

It was an exercise in psychic precision and guessing where exactly the thread should go, unable to see that small eye of the needle in its entirety. All the while she worked on the thread, slimming it down to go through the eye of the needle. She put the thread into her mouth to streamline any little threads sticking out. In the end it seemed as if the thread knew where to go. She started her darning job.  

Darning the Slippers

Mariah squared up the hole underneath one slipper and started at one side going in and out in a darning way until the hole was covered once. Then she started perpendicular to this former work making a lattice, over one thread and under the next one. She ran her needle in and out a few more times to make it more secure without making it too lumpy. 

While she was darning she was also mulling over a few different things that were throwing a needle in her. 

The Lunar Energy causing problems

She was trying her best to bring peace and love into the relationship with Uishneach. She had been succeeding to some extent, quiet happy playing the game of bones, both doing their own thing and walking along side each other, no small thing, holding hands. But some lunar energy got under old hurts and wounds and caused her to have some words with Uishneach, making him a little afraid of her and her sharp words.

She focused on issues of old gold and spun around on this wheel of fortune. She had become his chief bottle washer and housekeeper and resented his determination to not be involved in the small details of the house keeping. He had become her lodger. She wanted to be a special lover. 

A dream of the needle

 She remembered a dream where she and Uishneach struggled mightily with a needle, she trying to avoid it and he trying to put it into her. It was hard not to take the dream personally but it was most likely a part of Mariah, her inner male aspect trying to stick it to her in some way, force her into obeying the patriarchal needle way in herself, as set down by her father and society in general. This is my opinion, it is right even though it does not suit the situation. The softer way of working together was not an option in her yet.

The Druid’s Full Moon Sermon

She had listened to the Druid Bernie at the last full Moon Gathering, where the moon was bright and high in the sky. Druid Bernie spoke of the need to be of service to others and not to do everything for self, prayers for self, meditation for self, eating good food for self and basically doing everything in a selfish self way. 

It was better to make up your mind to serve the creator and then everything you do would be in the service of others. In this way, eating healthy would be so that you could have a healthy body, the better to serve the Creator.  This would ensure success because of aligning self with the higher power, source. Others would see this connection with the infinite and trust you. The selfish needle would not be interwoven in this. 

Forgiveness

With all this in mind she wondered how to be of service within the relationship with Uishneach. Maybe he had not forgiven her for how she treated him in the past and this was why he could not be giving toward her relating to small issues in the home. Maybe she could look to herself and say the same things to herself that she found easy to accuse him of. She had not forgiven him for past hurts. 

She was going about her way, serving herself, and unconsciously, he felt her selfishness and distrusted that. She could not easily weave his words into her life, something could not be darned but left a gaping hole.

Uishneach weighed the quality of her response in the little things in life, like who would do what and who would acquire needed items. He unconsciously felt her selfishness and like a large rock, would block the way of the flow of life for her. 

She herself was the obtuse thing blocking her own way. It was easy to accuse the other of this block. 

Attunement plus Service

The druid had finished his talk emphasizing that service without attunement to God ended up in the do-gooder camp and manipulation and did not work out. And attunement to God without service ended up in the person having a big head and crippled by paralysis. 

She insisted in playing it safe, being nice with Uishneach, but it did not work out for her because she was not working on her own guts hanging out, ignoring gaping holes in herself. She would go back to that dream and get that darning needle that she had stuck in the mattress for safety and start mending the breach and forging the path. She would continue to go down the road loosely holding hands with Uishneach as they found themselves on the old waste places of their lives. She would let go of her need to be the boss, to be right. 

Holding Hands.

That night they held hands as they lay side by side. She asked him to  be quiet in case she got het up by what he said. There was silence for about fifteen minutes. As he turned away toward the window, he wished her a good sleep and happy dreams and that made all the difference.  The end.